Kate Middleton and Prince William got the first glimpse of Kate’s royal portrait in a private viewing Friday morning, and let’s just say it should have stayed private. Artist Paul Emsley apparently sat with the duchess at least twice for the portrait, and used several pictures to recreate her on canvas. The actual portrait is gigantic, no one would ever want to see their face that big (it’s at lease three to four times bigger than an actual face). Kate is possibly the most natural and graceful beauty in the public eye, so I do not understand how you can mutilate her face so easily. She has huge bags under her eyes (the portrait was staged before she was preggo so it cannot be attributed to lack of sleep and cyclical puking episodes), and she has laugh lines that would place her age around that of the Queen (who, I must respectfully say, looks a few years older than 31).

Naturally, the duchess and the prince handled the unveiling with grace, telling the public how beautiful and brilliant the creation is. Although I’d expect a hormonal rampage from any other newly-pregnant woman, Kate’s reaction and behavior is expectantly graceful. Even though the picture does absolutely nothing for her beauty, her compassion only makes me love her more! It doesn’t hurt that during the interviews she looked like an effortless bombshell as usual.